Dead in the Water_A Space Team Universe Novel

by Barry J. Hutchison

  “OK, fine,” he said, once he’d finished. “I’ve got a plan.”

  “That was quick,” said Artur.

  “We’re going to go up there, get your kids back, and stop a war,” Dan said. He held up a hand before anyone could respond. “I know, it’s a little light on detail, but we’ll flesh each part out when we come to it.”

  “And save Finn.”

  Dan turned to Ollie. “Huh?”

  “And save Finn,” she said. “You forgot to mention that part.”

  If the look of desperation on the mothers’ faces had stung, the look on Ollie’s cut him all the way open.

  “Sure, kid,” he told her. “And save Finn.”

  There was an ear-smashing bang and a brief but worrying screeeeeech as one of the spinning turbine blades nicked the back end of the sub, throwing the occupants around in their seats.

  “Assuming we make it there in one piece.”

  “Sorry, that was close,” the pilot said.

  “Me arse. ‘Close’ means ‘that thing almost hit us,’” called the voice in Marnie’s cleavage. “Whereas what actually happened was that thing actually fecking hit us.”

  “Well, we’re through,” the pilot said. “And the coast’s clear, so I’m going to start speeding up.”

  Dan blinked. “Wait. Start speeding up?” he asked, but the words went mostly unheard as they were lost to the whine of the sub’s engines.

  It felt, Dan would later recall, like all his atoms switched places at the same time. Their previous speed, which he’d considered to be stupidly fast, suddenly felt reassuringly sedate as the sub took off like a warp-enabled missile, and his teeth tried to retreat back into their sockets.

  Through his watering eyes, he saw the other occupants of the sub shrink a good three inches, their faces contorting as the immense G-Force stamped its authority all over them. He tried to blink, but his eyelids were pinned open, his face was ten percent flatter and thirty percent wider than usual, and it was all he could do not to black out.

  He blacked out.

  He woke to the tinny echo of Artur throwing up, which was very quickly followed by a squeal from Marnie.

  “Urgh! What the fonk?”

  “Oh, shoite. Sorry, about that, me darlin’,” Artur said.

  He threw up again.

  He was still throwing up when Marnie yanked him out from beneath her breastplate and tossed him onto the floor.

  Sunlight streamed into the sub through the gap in the cockpit wall. In the distance, Dan could hear the squawking of seabirds on the mooch for food. They were on the surface.

  Oh sweet, glorious Krosyh, they were on the surface.

  Ollie was sitting bolt upright in her chair, her hair slightly tousled, her eyes wide with wonder. “Whoa. That was awesome,” she whispered.

  Artur threw up on the floor. “Speak for yerself, Peaches,” he said, punctuating every other word with a violent retch.

  The side of the sub bumped gently against something solid. “We’re here,” the pilot announced. She appeared in the doorway, looking much shorter and frumpier than Dan had expected. She wore a green shawl across her shoulders that might well have been made of seaweed, and looked more like a grandmother than a mom.

  “This is where they came up,” she said. “The other subs are on the next jetty over.”

  “I can’t hear shooting or screaming or any of that stuff,” Artur pointed out. He swallowed and wiped his beard on his sleeve. “That’s a good sign, right?”

  “It is,” Dan confirmed, unfastening his harness.

  “So, what now?” asked another of the moms.

  Dan unfastened his harness and stood up. “Same plan as before. We get your kids back. And we stop a war.”

  “And save Finn,” Ollie added.

  “And that, too,” Dan confirmed.

  Marnie unclipped herself and stood beside him. “And do you have any more detail yet?”

  Dan thought for a moment. “No,” he admitted. He drew his gun and nodded at the women. “So, let’s go improvise.”

  DAN, Ollie and Marnie hid behind a stack of cargo crates, barely able to believe their luck. Krato stood at the other end of a long jetty at an industrial-looking dock, pacing back and forth like some military commander. The six children stood in a line before him, wearing headsets that encircled their heads like oversized halos that had slipped down so they almost covered their eyes. Bonbo flanked the group on one side, with Finn at the other. Bonbo’s eyes were still pointed at the ground, while Finn struggled against a set of cuffs that locked him together at the wrists and elbows.

  “We made it in time,” Dan whispered.

  “At the rate that mad cow was driving, I’m surprised we didn’t get here first,” Artur replied. He was perched on Dan’s shoulder, holding onto an ear for support.

  “There’s Finn,” said Ollie. She stepped out and raised a hand to wave, but Dan quickly clamped one of his own hands across her mouth and pulled her back into cover.

  “What are you doing?” he hissed. “You almost gave us away.”

  “But it’s Finn. He’s right there.”

  “And right now, we have the element of surprise,” Dan told her. “If you let them know we’re here, this could all go to shizz.”

  Marnie, who had been scowling in the general direction of Krato’s back for the last minute, finally spoke.

  “This isn’t right.”

  “What do you mean?” Dan asked. “We’re going to get the kids back. That’s what you wanted.”

  “No, I mean something’s wrong. Why is Krato there by himself?”

  “He’s not by himself,” Ollie said. “Finn’s there. And all those other people.”

  “I mean there were a dozen subs docked down there. So where is everyone else?”

  From behind them there came the sound of a throat being cleared.

  “Drop the weapon,” Cobia instructed.

  Dan turned, gun-arm whipping around to take aim. Before he could level the weapon at Cobia’s head, a trident moved to intercept. His wrist wedged between its prongs, and Mindy was flung from his grip as the trident was twisted.

  Grabbing the trident’s long handle, Dan wrenched it out of the Deeper Downian’s hands and smashed the butt into Cobia’s face, further shattering his nose. Cobia howled and covered his face with his hands, his blood quickly pumping out through his webbed fingers.

  Another of the weapons cracked Dan on the back of the skull, turning the solid jetty to a squidgy putty. Stunned, Dan realized he and the others were now surrounded by a number of identical twins. Either that or that last head injury had fonked up his vision.

  Two partially conjoined troops moved in perfect unison, and a single fork speared his left side. Another pierced the flesh on his right, pinning him in place.

  Marnie caught one of the spearmen by the back of his armor, but he was considerably larger than she was, and he shrugged her away.

  “Water,” Dan told her. His eyes went to the ocean behind them, then to Ollie.

  It took just half a second for Marnie to get the point. Grabbing Ollie, she raced for the dock edge.

  There was a splash as Ollie and Marnie hit the water and vanished below the surface. A couple of the Deeper Down soldiers moved to follow, but a shout from Cobia stopped them.

  “Forget them. Keep the dead man pinned. He’s the danger.”

  “You have no idea,” Dan said. “Mindy, rapid fire.”

  Down on the jetty, Mindy’s chamber rotated and locked into position.

  “Mindy, fire!”

  Dan jumped and caught the top of the crate stack just as the weapon kicked into life and spun across the dock, spraying blaster bolts like ankle-height fireworks in every direction.

  There was screaming. A lot of screaming. It was quickly followed by a lot of falling over, and then a not-inconsiderable amount of death as Mindy’s pinwheel of pain tore through the toppling bodies, obliterating any heads and torsos unlucky enough to stray into its path
.

  “Mindy, cease.”

  The torrent of blaster fire died away. Mindy’s frantic spin became an increasingly sedate series of rotations, then stopped.

  Dan dropped back onto the dock. Artur regarded the sizzling corpses and the groaning not-quite-yet ones. There was no sign of Cobia, but then some of the bodies had been obliterated to the extent that only a DNA sample, or a particularly skilled psychic medium would be able to identify them.

  “Brutal,” Artur said, then he jumped when Ollie broke the surface of the water, gasping in a deep, desperate breath.

  Marnie appeared beside her. Dan retrieved Mindy while they climbed up onto the jetty.

  As their heads drew level with the dock, both women paused.

  “Whoa. What happened?” Ollie asked. “Are they dead?”

  “The ones without heads definitely are,” Artur told her. “And, I mean, those three are just legs, so they’re done for, too.”

  Marnie ducked out of sight. Dan and Artur tried to ignore the HUUURK of her throwing up into the water.

  “She’s being sick,” said Ollie.

  “Is she now?” asked Artur.

  RRRRUUMG! HWOOAGH!

  “Yes.”

  They waited until the vomiting episode had ended. Marnie groaned, then raised her head again.

  “Ye alright there?”

  BLEUWGH! GRUURGH!

  Artur rocked on his heels on Dan’s shoulder. “Let’s give her a minute.”

  “No time. We’ve lost our element of surprise. She’ll have to catch us up,” said Dan. “Mindy, stun shot.”

  He stepped out from behind the crate to find Krato waving at him. With the other hand, he held a gun jammed against the side of a boy’s head. The kid hadn’t flinched, and none of the other children seemed to have even noticed. Whatever the halo thing was, it seemed to be keeping them in some sort of trance-like state. Bonbo was still staring at the ground, while Finn continued to wrestle with his bonds.

  “Hello, Mr Deadman,” Krato said. “Please, don’t try any heroics. I’m not in the mood.”

  Ollie appeared beside Dan, water pouring off her onto the dock. “He’s got a gun,” she gasped.

  “He has that,” Artur confirmed.

  “Toss your weapon into the water,” Krato instructed.

  Dan hesitated. Krato pressed the barrel of his gun against the kid’s head. While the boy’s expression didn’t change, Dan saw a single tear glisten as it ran down his face.

  He tossed the gun. Krato waited for the splash before nodding his approval.

  “Good. Now come over. Join the fun.”

  Ollie started to look back over her shoulder, but a hiss from Dan stopped her. “Don’t. He doesn’t know she’s there. Eyes front,” he instructed.

  Placing a hand in the small of Ollie’s back, he led her along the jetty. Finn’s face lit up when he saw her, and he immediately redoubled his efforts to wrestle his arms free.

  “We don’t have all day,” Krato said, adding a theatrical sigh to emphasize his point. “Hurry, please.”

  Dan and Ollie picked up the pace, closing the gap until they were less than fifteen feet away.

  “Far enough,” Krato instructed. “Look down. Imagine there is a line right in front of you. See it in your mind. If you cross that line, someone dies. Understood?”

  “What the Hell are you doing, Krato?”

  Krato’s red face twisted in rage. “Is that understood?”

  Dan gritted his teeth, then nodded. “Don’t cross the line. Understood.”

  The villain’s smile returned. “Good.”

  “Finn. Are you OK?” Ollie asked.

  “Oh, and no one talks to my… what? Associates? Prisoners?” Krato tapped a finger against his stupid beard. “Weapons. No one talks to my weapons or BLAM!”

  He shouted the last word, making Ollie and Finn both jump. None of the kids so much as blinked.

  Krato laughed, then gestured over to the stack of crates. “So, did you kill them all?”

  “Most of them,” Dan admitted.

  “And it wasn’t fecking pretty,” Artur added. “So ye might want to think about that before ye start giving us any of yer shoite.”

  Krato looked positively delighted by this news. “Thank you. That helps me out a lot. That’s going to buy me a round two at least.”

  “What’s the scrawny little bollocks talking about now?” Artur asked.

  “Well, since you’ve taken out our fishy friends, there’s no harm in telling you,” said Krato. “And frankly, this is all too damned clever not to gloat about.”

  He placed a hand to the back of his mouth as if imparting some great secret. “The thing is, I don’t give a shizz about Deeper Down.”

  “You don’t say,” said Dan. “You want to take over the city. You explained that already.”

  Krato snorted. “Take over the city? Please. With Geronimus Krone about to move in? How long would I be in charge for? A day? A week?” He shook his head. “No. Take over the city. Ridiculous.”

  He gestured around at the smoke-spewing factories behind them, and the dirty high-rise housing blocks just beyond. “Besides, it’s a horrible place. What would I even want with it? No.”

  “Well… what, then?” Dan asked.

  “You tell me, Detective,” Krato said. His eyes sparkled. “In fact, let’s make it a game. I’ll give you… let’s say one minute to figure it out. If you don’t, I’ll pull this trigger.”

  “What? No!” said Ollie. She started to take a step forward.

  “The line!” Krato screeched. He pressed the gun harder still against the boy’s head, bending his neck. The headset tilted a fraction, and Dan heard a brief snatch of that same lullaby tune he’d heard before. “Don’t make me remind you.”

  Dan caught Ollie by the arm and felt a crackle of energy that stung even his nerve-endings. He held on, ignoring the pain until she stepped back over the imaginary line.

  “Good girl,” Krato said. He eyeballed her for a while, then shifted his gaze to Dan. “Forty seconds.”

  “What? Now wait a fecking minute!” Artur protested.

  “Thirty-five.”

  Dan felt his fingers ball into fists. The kids still hadn’t flinched, but three of the six had hot tears streaming down their silent, unmoving faces. Bonbo was shuffling anxiously from foot to foot, his mouth moving as he whispered something only he could hear. Finn, for his part, was still struggling pointlessly against his shackles. He might not be the brightest, but he was a tryer, Dan would give him that much.

  “Twenty-five. Tick-tock-tick-tock.”

  Behind him, a blue-green figure slid silently out of the water and onto the dock.

  “Look, just fecking tell us, alright!” Artur bellowed, waving an arm to attract Krato’s attention. “We don’t want to play yer stupid game. There’s no need to hurt the skiddlers, just tell us and we’ll all pretend to be impressed or whatever it is ye want from us.”

  Without looking, Krato swung the gun around and squeezed off a single round. The bolt hit Marnie in the chest, crumpling her armor and launching her a dozen or so feet along the dock. She rolled awkwardly to a stop, one arm pinned beneath her, the other flopped over her face.

  “Marnie!” Artur yelped. “Ye bastard! I’ll feckin’ kill ye!”

  The gun pressed against the boy’s head again. “Ten. Nine. Eight.”

  “Hold on,” Dan urged.

  “Seven. Six. Five.”

  “For fonk’s sake, just give me a—”

  “Four. Three. Two.”

  “An enemy! You made them the enemy!” Dan blurted.

  Krato’s mouth began forming the first ‘W’ sound of the number one, then stopped. He cocked his head. “Go on. But be quick.”

  Dan’s mouth started talking before his brain had filled in all the blanks. “Krone. You said you got out of the weapons business because there was no money in it. You’d been selling planetary defense weapons, and with Krone moving into the sector no other pl
anet would risk waging war on us, or he’d wipe us both out.”

  “And…?”

  “And so, if you couldn’t convince the Tribunal they had to prepare for threats from other planets, you thought you’d scare them into believing there’s a threat here on this one. Deeper Down. You’re making them look like the big bad monsters from the deep so you can keep selling guns to the Tribunal.”

  Krato smirked. “Bingo! Well figured out, Detective. I mean, you’ve barely scratched the surface, but you’ve got the general idea. See, once I send the broken bodies of their people back down to them – and show them the footage of their children being cut down in the streets – how do you think Deeper Down will react?”

  “They’ll want to arm themselves,” Dan said. “They’ll want to retaliate.”

  “And around and around we go,” Krato said. “Beautiful, isn’t it? I’d love to take the credit for it, but we’ve been doing this sort of thing for centuries, all across the galaxy. Give people guns, make them hate each other, then get rich from the escalation. It’s timeless, really.”

  This time it was Dan who shuffled forward. Krato spotted the movement right away. He screwed his gun into the side of the kid’s head. “The line! Cross it and he dies!”

  “He’s going to die anyway,” Dan said. “They all are, right?”

  “But they have to die correctly, or what’s the point?” Krato spat. He quickly adjusted a knob on the side of the weapon. “Ah, fonk it,” he said, then he turned the gun on Dan and shot him between the eyes.

  TWENTY-THREE

  THE IMPACT SNAPPED Dan’s head back just as a second gunshot hit Ollie in the chest. Neither of them fell. Instead, the world raced into fast forward around them. Krato’s movements became cartoonishly quick, his voice emerging as a high-pitched series of cheeps and squeaks.

  “Cool, huh?” he chirped, his voice so sped up Dan had difficulty understanding the words.

  Dan looked down at his hands. To him, they appeared to be moving at their regular speed, but the rest of the world was racing ahead of him, with the exception of Ollie.

  “What’s going on?” she asked. “Everything’s going fast.”

  Dan shook his head. “Slowdown rounds. The son-of-a-bedge has slowdown rounds. He’s dropped us into slow motion.”